Maureen Dowd Party the Best. . .
Steve Clemmons
Dowd was the perfect hostess. The fanciest treats she had were pigs in a blanket -- but she knew that the real treats were face time with herself and the power guests she assembled. She constantly worked through all of the rooms of her very crowded place and kept folks moving and milling and meeting each other. She started off my part of the evening telling David Geffen, Jeremy, Larry King, myself and some others various of the sell-himself show-off lines JFK was heard by neighbors using with dates.
And then entered Rahm Emanuel, his wife Amy Rule, and three beautiful kids who Geffen's Jeremy Lingvall, a great guy, promised to romp with next time the little Emanuels were in Malibu.
While everyone who was anyone seemed to be at Maureen Dowd's super gathering, Rick Warren was not -- and given how clearly close Geffen and Rahm Emanuel are, I think Rick Warren would have had to convert to hang out in that household.
I did mention to Rahm Emanuel that Gregory Craig, Barack Obama's White House Counsel, had told me the other evening that he and the whole senior team needed to report to the Southwest Gate of the White House and report to duty between 2:30 and 4:00 pm on Tuesday, immediately after the Inaugural parade. And Rahm said "absolutely. . .have to start making phone calls."
I asked Rahm in front of the Washington Post's Al Kamen who he'd place his very first call to. Emanuel said "my mother. . .and if you believe that, you are full of (well, I'll just let that go. . .)"
as the Hollwood A-List continued to arrive, I had the opportunity to meet and chat with George Lucas, Ron Howard, Larry David, Tom Hanks -- who pretty much stayed at the doorway.
Others at the Dowd gala were California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Anne Gust, Andrew Sullivan and Aaron Tone, Alan Greenspan, Helene Cooper, Chris Wallace, Alison Silver, Al Kamen, Janice O'Connell, Aspen Institute President and historiographer Walter Isaacson, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, New Yorker writer and torture policy chronicler Jane Mayer, Bob Woodward, Arianna Huffington, Tammy Haddad; Politico's Ben Smith, Carol Lee, Jonathan Martin, and Mike Allen; Chris Matthews, Margaret Carlson, 'Results the Gym' owner Doug Jefferies, Adam Clymer, Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper, Tom Brokaw, Michael Hirsh, John Harwood, Jane Hamsher, Atlantic Monthly editor James Bennet and his brother Michael Bennet (who is the newly appointed Senator from Colorado succeeding Ken Salazar), David Sanger, Diane Von Furstenberg, David Shuster and Julianna Goldman.
MORE at........
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:fRyLvH4pH5EJ:www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/01/maureen_dowd_pa/+Maureen+Dowd+Party,+Washington+Note&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a